New initiative to track deer in Kent County aims to increase driver safety [Video]

KENT COUNTY, Mich. — Grand Valley State University, Kent County and the Kent County Road Commission are working on a new initiative to analyze deer behavior in the community.

Jerry Byrne is the managing director for the Kent County Road Commission. He said the collaborative approach, called the Kent County Deer Management Coalition Project, is key to efficiently analyzing the animal.

“Let’s do this as 21 townships, nine cities and villages, let’s do this collectively because deer don’t know where the jurisdictional boundary line is, and they’re not going to stop there,” he said.

From Monday, Dec. 2-16, teams of university students and staff will look for deer from 5:30-11 p.m.

He explained they’ll search in, “selected areas out in the county based on where we’ve seen dead deer picked up, UD-10 police reports, in really the surroundings of terrain, the …